We still are holding several images until the release date. Emilie Elizabeth, one of the primary visual artists of Instinct and Memory, in her own words…

When we first started discussing the concept for this shoot, Surachai had a few reference images floating around and had become interested in somehow incorporating Sex Magic. After a bit of research (I was vaguely familiar with the practice thanks to a very informative yoga retreat), we started putting together some ideas that were loosely inspired by the core concept of Sex Magic: focusing sexual energy into transcendence or an intention.

The photos don’t represent any specific ceremony or spiritual practice, but there were definitely nods to the Great Rite and a ganashakra in the posing and set design. The Great Rite is traditionally a Wiccan/Pagan practice that can be physical (intercourse) or symbolic using a chalice/cauldron and dagger/staff. The act represents the union of the God and Goddess and was historically used to promote fertility of the land and womb. In modern Wicca, it is used to unify the feminine and masculine energy within oneself. In Hinduism and some sects of Buddhism, “ganashakra” is a broad term used to describe a gathering involving a tantric circle ritual. These ceremonies generally involve dancing, geometric designs drawn on the ground with powders, some sort of feast and of course, sexual yoga or symbolic intercourse. The intention is to reach a heightened state of consciousness which some believed could also involve temporary possession. Instinct and Memory could easily serve as the soundtrack to a frenzied spiritual enlightenment or at the very least, an incredibly powerful orgasm.

Briana Gonzales’s set was an inspiration in itself. The colors and textures photographed beautifully. The props allowed the women to interact with the set instead of simply posing. Briana also choreographed some of the scenes, which made the women feel like they were actually taking part in some kind of ceremony. It was amazing to watch them delve into it. Most of the women didn’t know each other and some had very little experience modeling nude. Despite that, there was a lot of laughing and I think it was pretty exhilarating for everyone involved.

Over the last ten years or so, I’ve shied away from shooting women topless or nude. I generally shoot fashion so it happens on occasion, but it almost always feels gratuitous. For this project however, shooting these amazing, confident women with different body types felt right. It felt more like a celebration of the human body, feminine energy and collaboration than exploitation. Briana has done some groundbreaking work with Peaches and Margaret Cho and with the recent social and political climate, I’ve also become a lot more focused on feminist issues involving the body and sexuality – whether it be the “Free the Nipple” campaign and nursing in public, women posting “empowered” nude selfies online, Planned Parenthood and the laws placed on women’s bodies or the double-standards of how we view the sexual activities of men vs. women. Coincidentally enough, I attended a screening for the film The Witch with one of the women featured in this project a few weeks after we shot. We were both pleasantly surprised to see the fear of female sexuality being tackled in an aesthetically related, albeit much more sinister way.

Despite women’s bare breasts often being treated as pornographic no matter what the context, I was still caught off guard when I found out that the cover artwork was being censored in some music publications and completely rejected from others. I have no idea whether it was solely based on the bare breasts of the woman in the foreground, their proximity and pose, or because the style of the photo was unlike what’s typically used for electronic music. Either way, I can’t help but wonder whether we would have faced the same censorship if it had been two shirtless men. Thank you to the publications that displayed the unaltered image instead of treating it as offensive or explicit.

Emilie & Briana would also like to thank:
Surachai for trusting us and the other visual artists you collaborate with to to play and create unique work inspired by your music. The amazing women that posed for this project, including Anna Calloway, Corinne Loperfido, Nadia Kiyatkina, Lisa McNeely and Rachel Musgrave. James Mori for bringing your two beautiful snakes and hanging out all day on set with us. Adrian Espinoza for your tireless photo assistant hustle. Amber Kerns for your help with makeup, Steff Walk, and Ian Miyazaki for lending us your otherworldly designs. Rachel Hsiung for the witchy props, Kate Van Asten/WULFKA for the epic cloak and HvnterGvtherer for the stunning neckpiece and jewelry.

Weight In Minimalism
Leaving Heavy Mask sparse left me in doubt for several weeks. Every layer I added seemed to take away from its initial severity and grit, and wash away the detail of the foundation tracks. I eventually surrendered to its simplicity and worked with maximizing the details. As a result of its simplicity, it’s been called a grower and not a show-er. Heavy Mask was written, mixed, and organized with vinyl as the preferred listening method.

Thermionic Culture Vulture Super 15
Everything on this album went through a Thermionic Culture Vulture Super 15. The Culture Vulture Super 15 is a very strange piece of processing gear that I have trouble recommending to anyone. The TCVS15 is a very specific tool for a very specific person – and apparently, I don’t know any of these people. The Cwejman S1 MKII was fed into the Eventide Space and into the Thermionic Culture Vulture Super 15 and was sequenced by the Make Noise RENE. If you’ve listened to Ritual or read its accompanying article, this should sound familiar. Except for the TCVS15, the signal flow is identical to how Ritual was recorded. If you want an extreme comparison, listen to how clean and dynamic Ritual is and come back to listen to Heavy Mask. On the flip side, Form Volume II was pre-mastered with the TCVS15 and was cleaned up and sparkly by the time it hit mastering.

Drums
The drums were performed by Charlie Werber during this past brutal Chicago winter. You may remember Charlie from Embraced where I’m still in awe of his performance. In the Heavy Mask recording sessions, Charlie simplified and complimented the existing tracks I brought in. In an active rehearsal space, I recorded Charlie using 4 microphones: 2 Earthworks QTC40’s for the overheads, 2 SM57’s on the kick and top of the snare, everything went directly into the RME UFX. UAD’s Neve 88RS, UA1776, and LA2A were heavily used.

Artwork
Sarah Sitkin. I’ve known Sarah for almost 10 years and I’m probably her biggest fan. She’s responsible for the artwork on To No Avail a few years ago and how much she’s evolved in that time is breathtaking. Hell, how much she’s evolved since creating the Heavy Mask cover just over a month ago is amazing.
John Crawford is the only person you need to follow on Instagram. Together, John and Emilie created the Ritual artwork last year and I needed John’s aesthetic on Heavy Mask as well. He’s been essential for creative input as well as execution and his instinct overrule mine.
Caspar Newbolt was responsible for the entirety of the artwork on Embraced and helped lay out Ritual. He graciously lent a hand again with making sure the vinyl packaging and general layout was consistent with our combined high standards.
A quick word about censorship: Heavy Mask will not appear anywhere that censors the human body, so far this only includes iTunes and its services.

Mastering
Shawn Hatfield of Audible Oddities. Again, always. The versions Shawn send back make me feel like I’m listening to a fully formed thought as opposed to just a number of tracks I made and ordered. Shawn brought Heavy Mask to a level clarity and brutality I’ve rarely heard before.

“When I first heard these songs, I immediately thought about how they’d benefit from being pushed a bit harder than normal through my chain, to bring in some subtle saturation and harmonics. I felt this really showed off the exceptional work Surachai had already done at the mix stage. I focused mostly on getting the gain staging for each piece of equipment just right to get the optimal sound for each song. In these various stages, the songs passed through several transformers, starting with Carnhill, into a pair of amorphous core Lundahl’s and then into a pair of Cinemag’s. I used two different tube stages along the way; one for transparent vari-mu compression using the Knif Vari Mu II, and the other a colorful class A tube pre-amp called a Creamliner II that adds some great detail by adding triode harmonics. At the end of the chain, a Dangerous BAX EQ was used to help balance the lows and highs just prior to capture.”

Lacquering, Plating, and Printing
The signal flow was the same as Ritual: Roger of SAE handled the lacquering which is then sent to Metalworks for plating and then to Gottagroov for the printing. The records are 180 grams and the jackets are thick tip-on boards with a matte finish that makes the artwork particularly menacing.

BL_K NOISE
This is the fourth vinyl release on BL_K NOISE. Moe Espinosa / Drumcell, who runs the label with me, described BL_K NOISE perfectly, “a small label to release music that is not restrained by genre or expectations. An open format label to release whatever music we feel like whenever we want.” What Moe left out is that all of our releases have been DIY, we go through great lengths to be involved in every step of the process and stand proudly behind out releases artistically on all levels. Anyone that has bought our vinyl can speak to the high quality.

We don’t pay for PR, promotion, or print and somehow we sell out of our releases. It’s equally humbling as it is confusing. Thank you for the support, it means more than you’ll ever know.

Form Volume II consists of four archived performances and four new recordings. Form Volume II can be found on Bandcamp. The vinyl is shipping out around December 16th, 2014. Since most time, effort, and money went into the physical product – I’ll start there and work backwards.

Vinyl
As a response to the deluxe presentation of Ritual and because Form Volume II wasn’t supposed to exist, I decided to keep the theme of non-existence with the vinyl and artwork by calling it the Void Presentation. Firstly: there is no artwork. The vinyl is clear and with no center sticker making it an entirely transparent vinyl record. Again, the record is pressed at GottaGroov Records. The transparent information card was manufactured by Offbeat Press and the reference I gave them was the winning ticket to Fhloston Paradise from The Fifth Element. The clear jacket is also clear and originally intended for picture discs. If you’re not looking for this album, you’re not going to find it – basically its a marketing nightmare.

Pre-Master & Mastering
Because all tracks were recorded in single takes to stereo or mono tracks and mixing was performed on the fly, the results were raw, hugely dynamic, and sometimes lackluster. All tracks were mixed afterwords and pre-mastered with the Thermionic Culture Vulture Super 15 with a couple dynamic processing UAD plug-ins. I turned these pre-master versions into Shawn Hatfield of Audible Oddities to officially master the album and tame the inconsistencies between the tracks while preserving the dynamics.

“In general, I used all the different input/output transformer stages on my gear, driven just enough to saturate a little. Dave Hill Titans were used to add weight and body, Knif Vari-Mu II mid/side compression to glue things together and further enhance the stereo information followed by a BAX EQ to help open things up a little more where needed. And I also ran them through some custom op amps built around a 1970’s design that impart a smooth character.” – Shawn Hatfield of Audible Oddities.

Recording
Despite the length of time between recordings, the recording sessions were almost identical to each other: construct a patch, tweak the patch anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 weeks, record the patch, keep the 1st or 23rd take. There were no limitations of modules used and as you can tell in the videos, there were plenty – although the last track is using only one module.

Background
Form Volume II is not supposed to exist. The album started with Aaron Funk requesting source audio files from a few Form session videos. That was an easy ask: track down the sessions folders, zip up a few bounced files, and send them over Dropbox – that should have been the end of the transaction. But this small request spiraled into obsession to the point where I found myself finishing an album I hadn’t known I was working on for more than two years – in the mountains of Tennessee. The first four tracks were previously recorded from June, 2012 to August, 2014 in Chicago and the last four tracks were recorded in a weekend with Richard Devine and his live system in Tellico Plains, Tennessee in August, 2014.

Release
I’m writing this a day before the official release and am confused after looking at Bandcamp’s best seller’s column for electronic vinyl. Currently, Make Noise Records: Shared System Series – Surachai 7” is number 1 and Form Volume II is in third place. What does this mean? For Make Noise Records, its makes a bit of sense – We’ve released some of the top names in experimental music on our short 5 record, 2 year stint and mine being the last, the momentum is expected. As for Form Volume II, for me, its incomprehensible at best. I haven’t utilized active PR for the past 3 vinyl releases and am constantly hopping labels and switching musical styles. The only thing I can think of is that I know who you all are. I order, assemble, pack and ship the vinyl to you and that must mean something. Whatever it is, thank you for all the support over the years.

Form Thirty Recorded in Chicago, IL. June 9 2012
Form Thirty-Two Recorded in Chicago, IL. November 12, 2013
Form Thirty-Four Recorded in Chicago, IL. May 3, 2014
Form Thirty-Five Recorded in Chicago, IL. August 12, 2014
Form Thirty-Six Recorded with Richard Devine in Tellico Plains, TN. August 31, 2014
Form Thirty-Seven Recorded with Richard Devine in Tellico Plains, TN. August 31, 2014
Form Thirty-Eight Recorded with Richard Devine in Tellico Plains, TN. August 31, 2014
Form Thirty-Nine Recorded in Tellico Plains, TN. August 31, 2014

Limited to 250 copies of vinyl
Mastered by Shawn Hatfield of Audible Oddities
Released by BL_K NOISE

Pre-Production
After several years of creating complex arrangements and aurally dense albums, I decided to simplify the tools and work with its impact on composition and sound. One of my favorite synthesizers is the semi-modular Cwejman S1 MKII and knew that it was complex enough to shape all the sounds I needed for an album. The Cwejman’s architecture is familiar to existing 3 oscillator systems but its semi-modular nature, filters, envelopes, and even distortion are completely unique. Although using only one sound source simplified the sound I believe Ritual is, frequency wise, the heaviest album I have made.

Recording
The signal chain was short. Cwejman S1 MKII output > Eventide Space > RME Fireface UC. The Cwejman was sequenced by the Make Noise RENE. The Dynaverb algorithm in the Eventide Space was the only reverb model used, except 20 (00) where a Tip Top Audio Z5000 delay preset was utilized. The album was tracked into Logic X and like my previous albums, everything was recorded into one large session but this time only 4 tracks were used.

Sync & Editing
Sync was placed by hand – not quantized on a grid or snapped to a BPM. A drifting master clock might be considered “charming” or give the album “personality” but it presented an unnecessary task of syncing audio files that would eventually sound like a train wreck if not reorganized. Although the drifting was unintended, by the end, I grew fond of this quirk, at points, and let some parts go their own way.

The editing, like the clock source, is pretty rough and raw. You can hear cables being pulled out, patched in, crackling knobs, and ground hum – all things I decided to leave in. There are a couple tracks where the computer was not able to handle the buffer size while recording and it resulted in audio files corrupted with a dynamic static effect. While these static infested files were immediately re-recorded cleanly, I ended up using the static files as it added an accidental texture. The most obvious example of this static is all over 03 (06).

Mixing & Mastering
Unlike past albums, I didn’t dwell on the mix for very long – hell, I didn’t even EQ anything! Because of the unique and versatile filters in the Cwejman S1 MKII, I was able to carve out unwanted frequencies during the recording process and simply had to automate volume changes in post. The bass in the Cwejman is very intense, and even with proper monitoring, I didn’t understand its depth until I went to Richard Devine’s studio that has subs. His system revealed frequencies I didn’t know existed in the recordings until monitoring on his system. I decided to leave all this extra information for Shawn Hatfield to play with.

Mastering
The mastering duties were conducted by Shawn Hatfield of Audible Oddities. My biggest concern was keeping the Cwejman envelope aggression as well as the intense bass frequencies. The references I sent Shawn was Raime’s Quarter Turns Over a Living Line and Grischa Lichtenberger’s And IV (Inertia). As always, he glued it all together, didn’t compromise the mix and extended its volume slightly.

“The thing I loved most about mastering this record was all the rich warm sounds that are unmistakably analog and the seemingly wild nature that comes with modular systems. In mastering these songs for vinyl, it was important to try and convey that as naturally as possible, but with modular systems, things can get unruly pretty fast, and vinyl can complain when it’s unhappy. I found FabFilter’s ProMB a very useful tool for this particular project as I was able to control just the specific aspects that needed control, without getting in the way of the rest of the spectrum. This helped me tame the beasts within, giving them a more balanced end result while maintaining as much of their natural character as possible. Because they had a nice organic feel from the start, I didn’t feel the need to blanket them with additional colors. I went in with clinical tools designed for transparent surgery, and made sure things like excessive treble were in check and low-frequency phase information was centered. But more importantly, we opted for a lower overall level, allowing for clear punchy transients that help the music be felt, not just heard.” – Shawn Hatfield of Audible Oddities Mastering

Artwork
For my previous albums I’ve worked with some of my favorite artists that I’m fortunate enough to call friends and Ritual was no different. I’ve followed Emilie Elizabeth’s photography for years and have always admired her style, sets, and aesthetic. John Crawford was involved throughout the process and provided his post production expertise that helped the images reach another level of unsettling. John also created the Waveform Gate which is an altered Necronomicon Gate Key with the 7 waveforms of the Cwejman S1 – one of many subtle and original touches this team obsessed over. They made me a bit uncomfortable by asking for my input so often. This is an abbreviated version of Emilie’s responses, the full length article can be found: Surachai.org.

“John and I are typically hired to do more commercial work, despite the fact our personal taste is not very commercial. Projects like this allow me to combine the last 10 years of experience as professional photographer with some of the experimentation that I’ve greatly missed.

At some point in our image research, we began to focus on still life paintings from the “Vanitas” style of the 16 and 17th centuries. John’s been really into H.P. Lovecraft lately, so that was a major influence. We were also leaning towards the idea of incorporating alchemy somehow, especially considering the name of the project.

We’re both really, really happy with the way the shots turned out. We were both challenged in ways we didn’t expect to be, which I believe is the best way to evolve as an artist. However, I’m a little surprised at our inability to work a few cats into the photos. Next time… and probably several times after that.” – Emilie Elizabeth

Vinyl
The Shawn Hatfield mastered files were sent to Roger Seibel of SAE Mastering to create lacquers. The lacquers were then sent to Mastercraft to be metal plated. The metal plates were then sent to GottaGroove who are currently pressing vinyl and printing the jackets. The vinyl release of Ritual is the intended way to experience the album for several reasons but here are the obvious three.

1) Sound. The vinyl mastered files were mastered at 24bit, 48kHz and at a volume that keeps the dynamic range of the Cwejman true. You won’t be able to hear this range with the digital downloads as we opted to make this version louder rather than dynamic. They both sound great and will push any sound system to its limits, but my preference is the vinyl edition that showcases the Cwejman’s aggression.

2) Artwork. The artwork, and I believe most artwork, is meant to be experienced on a large scale and physically if possible. So much attention to detail went into the artwork that when you see it up close, you’ll pick up on a few things…

3) Tip-On Style Gatefold Jacket. The moment this record is in your hands, you’ll notice the difference. The jackets are heavy, sturdy, and tough as shit.

“Tip-On jackets were the standard format of record jacket printing up until the late 1970’s / early 1980’s. Today, they are typically considered a deluxe form of packaging for records. However, ironically, I have been told by folks involved in manufacturing records in the 1980’s that tip-ons were actually considered the low-class option back then; and that direct-to-board was the form of print bands strived for on their releases.

In modern vinyl pressing, the tip-ons are definitely a step up over the tip-ons of the 1970’s. For ours, we use a very thick 30pt stock core. I find that the extreme stiffness of the board provides an aesthetically pleasing “feel” when handling the package and a lot more protection for the records when mailing them.

I know that tip-ons are unlikely to ever become the standard again for most record packages, but I do hope that as more people become aware of their availability, we will see more of them in the marketplace. Being a record consumer myself, I always find more enjoyment when buying a record when it is clear that there was a lot of extra steps taken in the manufacturing and the packaging.” – Matt Earley from GottaGroove Records

Label
BLK_NOISE was created by Moe Espinosa (Drumcell) and I to release music on multimedia formats including obsolete technology. This is the first release for BLK_NOISE and our plans include media projects not specifically limited to music.